John McKee Sharpe papers, 1793-1954.

Abstract: John McKee Sharpe of Stateville, N.C. Papers of John McKee Sharpe, including his own genealogical correspondence, and correspondence, business papers, etc., of the Sharpe family and of John H. McKee. Series 1, Sharpe Family papers, 1793-1890 (510 items), concerns members of the family who moved from Cecil County, Md., to Rowan, later Iredell, County, N.C. Prominent family members included the sons of Thomas Sharpe, Jr., namely Amos, John, and William (member of the Continental Congress from North Carolina), and Ebenezer Franklin Sharpe, son of Amos, and his son, Silas Alexander, who married a McKee. The papers consist of bills, receipts, and business papers, and the papers of Silas Alexander Sharpe as a colonel in the North Carolina Home Guard, 1863-1865. Silas Sharpe’s papers deal with militia activities in Iredell and Alexander counties, especially with conscription, apprehension of deserters, slaves detailed to work at Fort Fisher, and local defenses; and his business papers in connection with the Atlantic, Tennessee, and Ohio Railroad. Series 2, John H. McKee papers, 1820-1870 (173 items), contains scattered business and legal papers and extensive family correspondence with relatives spread across the South. Topics of significance include the legal separation of John H. McKee and his second wife, and the successes and failures of son Thomas Jefferson McKee (d. 1855), who settled in Shelby County, Tex. Series 3, John McKee Sharpe papers, 1903- 1954 (117 items), consists almost entirely of correspondence relating to the history of the Sharpe and McKee families and members of the related Caldwell, Mills, Moore, and Murdock families, and to Iredell County history.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Papers belonging to Silas Alexander Sharpe, a colonel of the North Carolina Home Guard for Iredell and Alexander Counties, concern conscription, apprehension of deserters, and slaves detained to work at Ft. Fisher. The papers include in Folder 1 a Maryland bond to a North Carolina resident demanding the delivery of a slave (1793). Folder 5 contains letters concerning the purchase of slaves (1846, 1849). In Folder 15, there are letters describing race relations in Laurens District, South Carolina, during Reconstruction (1871). Also, in the early 1850s there is correspondence concerning the death of John Stevenson and the manumission of his slaves, who emigrated to Liberia (See Folders 20 and 21).